


We Will Be Together

by Lunarium



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, Pre-Canon, Science Experiments, Soulmate's presence heals hurt character, Soulmates, Vivisection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-01 13:46:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18801544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: Two suffering young men find their soulmate comforting them from across the universe.





	We Will Be Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [planetundersiege](https://archiveofourown.org/users/planetundersiege/gifts).



The hover-bike seared across the early morning desert, yet the roar of the engine blaring in his ears wasn’t enough to drown out the memory of the fight yesterday nor wipe the dreaded words—Pilot Error—that flashed across the Breaking Headlines news. 

In a few hours, some self-proclaimed expert from the Garrison will be interviewed on why pilot errors could happen, how this one possibly occurred, exposing Shiro’s illness in the process, how often such tragic accidents have taken place in the past, and, while wearing a fake smile, would assure the public that something of the sort would never happen again. 

Keith didn’t want to hear it. Just like how he didn’t want to hear James Griffin’s comments—the same slanderous comments he got away with that gave Keith the worst disciplinary action yet—nor Instructor Fokker’s remarks about his friend’s illness. With nothing left to stop him—let the bastards flunk him—Keith has given James and Fokker matching black eyes and was off. 

They were all wrong. 

Shiro was the best pilot Keith had ever seen—the best any Galaxy Garrison in the world had ever seen—and he—the Garrison, they failed him, failed Shiro—

Growling, Keith’s right hand squeezed the throttle, and the hover-bike accelerated, roaring under him. The desert blurred before him. 

Did anyone care about Shiro? Did Adam care? After all of the disciplinary actions he was piling up as if in an arcade game, Keith figured Adam would seek him out, but he saw not a glimpse of the bastard. Did he feel that threatened by Keith?—He squeezed the throttle again—Even after Shiro, their mutual friend, their mutual _something_ had died, did that hatred not even thaw? Would he still grade Keith the same way as always, strict and unfair and—and—had it not been for Shiro— 

His hand gripped the throttle, but the hover-bike spun erratically, throwing Keith off. Crying out, Keith fell several feet away and landed hard on his head, his right shoulder twisting at odd angle under his neck. Ringing filled his ears as something warm and wet cupped his cheek. 

_If I die, I can be with Shiro…_

He waited—hoped—for the hover-bike to crash on top of him, but it missed his head by a couple feet. Damn it. 

_Let me be with Shiro!_

The rising sun basked his face. The morning news was going to have its special guest who was going to sully Shiro’s name and fill the public with what it wanted to hear. The Garrison was going to go on without its unwanted star pupil that Shiro himself had brought in. 

Life will continue with everyone carrying a very wrong idea of just who Shiro and Keith were. But Keith didn’t care, as long as...

Keith’s head pounded. Pain spiked in the left side of his ribs. 

_Please, let me be with Shiro._

“Keith?” 

The gasp left Keith’s lips as a shadow fell over him, blocking the sun. The gentle voice, spoken by such soft lips. The caring eyes studied him with bottomless warmth and worry. 

“Keith,” Shiro said. “Keith, I’m here.” 

“Shiro,” Keith spoke softly. “Let me be with you.” 

Shiro shook his head. “Not like this, Keith. Your story still continues.” 

“But…” 

“Trust me, Keith.” 

“I want to be with you, Shiro.” 

He smiled. “You will. Promise. And not in the way you currently think.”

Keith’s eyebrows knitted, confused. 

“You have to get up. There’s a shack not too far from here that the Garrison used as an outpost. It has an emergency phone line. Get yourself cleaned up.” 

“Shiro…are you still alive?” 

Shiro smiled. “I’ll see you later, Keith. Take care, buddy.” 

Blinking and groaning at the sudden burst of sunlight, Keith scrambled to his feet, struggled, realized one ankle had twisted, and compromised to crawl the rest of the way. His head throbbed under the hot sun, but thoughts of Shiro kept him going. 

After a long while, he located the shack. The door was open. Locating the First Aid kit, he tended to the bleeding on his head and any scratches, then grabbed for the emergency phone line. 

While he waited for the paramedics to arrive, he glanced out the window. Was that really Shiro? 

He smiled. A shadow had really fallen over him, but…a real person would have taken him themselves to the hospital. 

“You’re out there, Shiro,” Keith said under his breath. “Come back for me.”

⁂

“Hey, you’re gonna make it, okay?”

The soft reassurance drew Shiro’s eyes open. 

“Keith?” he said, alarmed. Had Keith been taken hostage too? How? Was Earth attacked? He studied his friend, but Keith showed no signs of distress as he stood next to him, hand on his left arm. 

“You’re going to get through this, Shiro,” Keith said, motioning to the wide, open gash in his torso, the missing organ glaringly apparent as an apparatus glowed in its place to keep him alive in the meantime. “I know it looks bad, but you’ll be fine.” 

“Keith, how are you here?” Shiro asked. He glanced around the room. A lone Galra scientist worked several feet, studying Shiro’s organ (was it his liver this time? They always took him apart and put him back together in the end, but it was never without agonizing pain.) Perhaps the Galra didn’t understand what Shiro just said or he took Shiro’s words as the rambling of a man gone mad. Shiro himself wouldn’t be surprised if this was all a hallucination. 

Keith smiled at Shiro. “I’m never leaving your side, Shiro.”

“Yeah, you did say something like that before I went on the mission. That you’ll wait for me, however long it’ll take. And if— _when_ , you said—I came back, you’ll always be by my side.” 

Keith smiled, but Shiro’s lips quivered. 

“I wish more than anything I could be back home. I want to be with you, Keith.” 

“You will. This bad time will pass.” 

Shiro turned and meet his eyes. 

“Keith…”

Keith smiled. “Hang in there. I will see you later, Shiro.”

*

When Shiro woke again, it was back in his cell.

Keith returned to him from time to time. 

Whenever he had been so sure he would die in the Gladiator arena, something about seeing Keith would drive him to succeed, every time. 

_I wonder how Keith’s doing_ , Shiro thought as he did push ups one evening before a match. His right arm was hurting worse than ever, and the witch had been mumbling about doing something to him. Scared as he was, for any time the witch got involved he knew he was due for intense pain, the thought of Keith fueled him with strength.

⁂

“Strange,” Keith muttered as he stroked the cave drawings. Strange yet beautiful. He had come to the cave countless times ever since he moved to the shack. He was always drawn to this particular cave by some inexplicable reason.

Shiro. It had something to do with Shiro. He couldn’t explain why or how; it was just an odd feeling he kept getting. 

Leaving the cave, he couldn’t help but look to the skies for the umpteenth time that day as if anticipating something. 

“Shiro?”


End file.
